Gulf states need to reform spending as oil price slips | GulfNews.com

Gulf states need to reform spending as oil price slips | GulfNews.com:



"Gulf Arab oil exporters will have to reform their state spending and make cuts in some areas because of weak oil prices, Kuwaiti Finance Minister Anas al-Saleh said on Saturday.



“We must undertake comprehensive economic reforms including the reform of imbalances in public finances,” Saleh told a meeting of Gulf Arab finance ministers, central bank governors and the International Monetary Fund in Kuwait.



“This must be undertaken through strengthening of efforts to diversify away from oil and decrease dependence on oil revenue, which is now inevitable.” Global oil prices tumbled to four-year lows below $83 per barrel this month, threatening — if current levels are sustained for a long period — to push the state budgets of some of the six members of the Gulf Cooperation Council into deficit after several years of big surpluses."



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